General 2012-13 Wrestling thread

[ugarte]

Dake wins 2-0, #2 Taylor (Penn State) gets another pin, so the match of the decade or whatever, it's on as the last match Saturday night, so that would be around 9:30-10:00 Eastern.

Note picture of winner Taylor and crestfallen Dake at 2006 Junior Nationals in this article on their longterm friendship.  Here's hoping that this time Dake is on top of the podium.

In the last year, Dake pinned Taylor at the freestyle wrestling championships and has beaten him 3-2 twice this year. Taylor racks up points and pins against lesser wrestlers more aggressively than Dake does but Dake's defense and caution is what distinguishes him, plus he's actually strong enough to take Taylor down when he sees his opening. I'm surprised so many experts have chosen Taylor since this is basically how all of their matches play out now: Taylor can't score, Dake can barely score, Dake wins.

That said, one mistake by Kyle and he's in trouble because Taylor doesn't miss openings.

[ugarte]

True freshman Nahshon Garrett starts the morning with a huge 13-9 comeback win over #5 redshirt senior Jarrod Garnett of Virginia Tech. He fell behind 6-1 early in the second period and stormed back, dominating the rest of the match. He'll wrestle #1 Allan Waters of Missouri for 3rd place. Waters pinned his consolation semifinal opponent in the first round and is probably still smarting from his first loss of the year in the championship semifinal.

Meanwhile, #1 Hunter Steiber, also angry over HIS first loss of the year, took it out on Mike Nevinger, beating him 9-0. Nevinger will wrestle #5 Henderson of North Carolina for 5th place.

Steve Bosak wins his consy semifinal 4-0 and will face #2 Ben Bennett of CMU for third place.

Good showing so far. Cornell is still in 5th. Garrett's 3d place match is coming up.

[ugarte]

Nahson Garrett takes third place!

Great win over the #1 seed. Dominant, too. He rode Waters the whole second period and tilted him for 2 points near the end of it. He escaped quickly in the third and took Waters down to take a 5-0 lead and held him down until there were ~12 seconds left. With the RT point, Garrett won 6-1. What an amazing finish for Garrett. We've got three more years of him too.

Awesome.

Nevinger's 5th place match coming soon.

[ugarte]

HUGE win for Mike Nevinger to take 5th place. He dominated Henderson and finished with a 9-2 win, just seconds away from a MD.

This is Nevinger's second year as an All-American and a one spot improvement over his 6th place finish from last year. We've got one more year of him, too!

After a rough first day, this has been a damn good tournament. Cornell is still in 5th place, just ahead of Missouri.

[ugarte]

Day keeps getting better.

#4 Bosak 2-0 over #2 Ben Bennett of Central Michigan to take third place.

The senior is an All-American for the third straight year. 4th in 2011, Championship in 2012, 3rd in 2013. What a great finish.

I think Cornell is locked into 5th place, though it is possible that if Dake loses and Steiber of Ohio State pins his opponent in the 133 final that may be enough to pass us.

[Al DeFlorio]

Day keeps getting better.

#4 Bosak 2-0 over #2 Ben Bennett of Central Michigan to take third place.

The senior is an All-American for the third straight year. 4th in 2011, Championship in 2012, 3rd in 2013. What a great finish.

I think Cornell is locked into 5th place, though it is possible that if Dake loses and Steiber of Ohio State pins his opponent in the 133 final that may be enough to pass us.

Only Ruth could have beaten Bosak.  Shame the seedings paired them in the semis.

[ugarte]

Day keeps getting better.

#4 Bosak 2-0 over #2 Ben Bennett of Central Michigan to take third place.

The senior is an All-American for the third straight year. 4th in 2011, Championship in 2012, 3rd in 2013. What a great finish.

I think Cornell is locked into 5th place, though it is possible that if Dake loses and Steiber of Ohio State pins his opponent in the 133 final that may be enough to pass us.

Only Ruth could have beaten Bosak.  Shame the seedings paired them in the semis.

That's a little unfair to Hamlin who has had his number their whole careers.

[David Harding]

Day keeps getting better.

#4 Bosak 2-0 over #2 Ben Bennett of Central Michigan to take third place.

The senior is an All-American for the third straight year. 4th in 2011, Championship in 2012, 3rd in 2013. What a great finish.

I think Cornell is locked into 5th place, though it is possible that if Dake loses and Steiber of Ohio State pins his opponent in the 133 final that may be enough to pass us.

Thank you for the running updates.

[ugarte]

Day keeps getting better.

#4 Bosak 2-0 over #2 Ben Bennett of Central Michigan to take third place.

The senior is an All-American for the third straight year. 4th in 2011, Championship in 2012, 3rd in 2013. What a great finish.

I think Cornell is locked into 5th place, though it is possible that if Dake loses and Steiber of Ohio State pins his opponent in the 133 final that may be enough to pass us.

Thank you for the running updates.

I'd say you're welcome but this is really more a compulsion than something done for the benefit of the board. (You're welcome!)

FYI, finals start tonight at 7pm CST. Dake won't go up for a while after that, as he is the 10th match of the night.

Please, if you happen to have my number (BEEEEJ) DON'T text me anything about the results. I'm going to be watching this on DVR late tonight.

[phillysportsfan]

Dake match up next

[semsox]

He's amazing

[phillysportsfan]

thats great, lead on sportscenter right now

[ugarte]

That was the best goddamn match I've ever seen. Despite being jobbed by the ref TWICE, Dake dominated Taylor in all aspects of the match. He won 5-4 but it wasn't that close. Dake escaped quickly, he rode hard, he got a takedown when he needed to and he earned that win.

Kyle Dake: first wrestler to win three titles in three years without a redshirt year; first wrestler to win four titles in four different weight classes; undefeated his junior and senior years. 2010 National Champion at 141; 2011 National Champion at 149; 2012 National Champion at 157; 2013 National Champion at 165. And when they look back at this, they will see that in the 2013 finals he beat a two-time national champion in David Taylor, because without Kyle Dake in his way, Taylor is going to blow through college wrestling next year and make all of this seem even more impressive in retrospect.

I am so happy to have gotten to watch him wrestle.

Cornell finishes in 5th place, they AGAIN have four All-Americans and the incoming freshman class looks top-notch. Get on the Cornell Wrestling bandwagon, everyone. It's a fun ride.

[Rita]

That was the best goddamn match I've ever seen. Despite being jobbed by the ref TWICE, Dake dominated Taylor in all aspects of the match. He won 5-4 but it wasn't that close. Dake escaped quickly, he rode hard, he got a takedown when he needed to and he earned that win.

Kyle Dake: first wrestler to win three titles in three years without a redshirt year; first wrestler to win four titles in four different weight classes; undefeated his junior and senior years. 2010 National Champion at 141; 2011 National Champion at 149; 2012 National Champion at 157; 2013 National Champion at 165. And when they look back at this, they will see that in the 2013 finals he beat a two-time national champion in David Taylor, because without Kyle Dake in his way, Taylor is going to blow through college wrestling next year and make all of this seem even more impressive in retrospect.

I am so happy to have gotten to watch him wrestle.

Cornell finishes in 5th place, they AGAIN have four All-Americans and the incoming freshman class looks top-notch. Get on the Cornell Wrestling bandwagon, everyone. It's a fun ride.

Ugarte, as the resident wrestling expert, can you explain the stall warnings to someone who just watched her first wrestling match? Thanks.

[ugarte]

That was the best goddamn match I've ever seen. Despite being jobbed by the ref TWICE, Dake dominated Taylor in all aspects of the match. He won 5-4 but it wasn't that close. Dake escaped quickly, he rode hard, he got a takedown when he needed to and he earned that win.

Kyle Dake: first wrestler to win three titles in three years without a redshirt year; first wrestler to win four titles in four different weight classes; undefeated his junior and senior years. 2010 National Champion at 141; 2011 National Champion at 149; 2012 National Champion at 157; 2013 National Champion at 165. And when they look back at this, they will see that in the 2013 finals he beat a two-time national champion in David Taylor, because without Kyle Dake in his way, Taylor is going to blow through college wrestling next year and make all of this seem even more impressive in retrospect.

I am so happy to have gotten to watch him wrestle.

Cornell finishes in 5th place, they AGAIN have four All-Americans and the incoming freshman class looks top-notch. Get on the Cornell Wrestling bandwagon, everyone. It's a fun ride.

Ugarte, as the resident wrestling expert, can you explain the stall warnings to someone who just watched her first wrestling match? Thanks.

It sounds like just what it is: you aren't allowed to just run out the clock, you have to engage and try to score. This is true whether you are on top (you can't just lie on top like a sack of potatoes, you have to try to turn your opponent), at neutral (you can't run away) or on bottom (you can't just flatten out and keep from getting turned, you have to try to get up and out). The first stall warning was given because the ref thought that Dake wasn't trying to score; I thought it was a nonsense call - Taylor kept getting up and Dake would return him to the mat and he even got position to try to turn his back, though he never succeeded. The second stall warning was a little more legit; Taylor had escaped and Dake WAS more or less backing up and counting down the clock. A second stall warning gives the opponent a penalty point. There wasn't enough time left on the clock for Dake to get hit with another stall call, so Taylor knew it was over (the ESPN clock seemed to be consistently behind the official clock by a full second).

Also, I'm hardly an expert. I've watched enough to know the rules.

One other point about Dake's accomplishment that someone on the wrestling forum made:

In 2010, Dake beat Montell Marion in the 141 finals. Marion returned to the 141 final in 2011.
In 2011, Dake beat Frank Molinaro in the 149 final. In 2012, Molinaro won the 149 title.
In 2012, Dake beat Derek St. John in the 157 final. In 2013, St. John won the 157 title.
In 2013, Dake beat David Taylor in the 165 final. David Taylor was the returning 165 champion and 2011 finalist at 157.

He beat no cupcakes. He beat the best. Amazing.